Paying off a cash advance question

[Anonymous]

I was stuck in a situation where I had to do a cash advance because an ATM malfunctioned in the process of me withdrawing cash from my checking accont - I needed the cash, and since it malfunctioned in the process, other ATMs would not let me take money out, as the account showed the withdrawal as completed and fulfilled my daily withdrawal limit.

I took out the advance on a CC I PIF regularly. My question is...as long as pay the statement balance completely, will I have gotten the cash advance taken care of? My concern is that although I PIF regularly (as I really am using the card just to get rewards, I could just pay cash but why not take the 1-3% discount), will my charges I make between the time I submit an online payment get paid, instead of the cash advance?

If this makes sense - should I put the card "on the shelf" until I have a zero balance showing, or I am OK since I pay the statement balance (plus the cash advance balance) before the next one cuts.

Thank you!

[Creditaddict]

as long as you pay the statement balance in full, it should clear out the cash advance.

[Anonymous]

Couple things to remember:

Cash advances may have additional fees.

1.  May charge transaction fee (2-3% of total amount)

2.  May incurr an ATM transaction fee ($1-3)

3.  Most likely incurr interest from the day of advance (no grace period)

So, when PIF, if you are paying before the statement cuts off, your actual payment will need to be for more than the balance shown to include the interest charges and potentially the transaction fees depending on when they charge them to your account.

I only state this because I had a similar circumstance where I did cash advance, then paid it off a couple weeks later.  Then my statement came and credit updated and it reported a small balance.  I had not paid enough to cover the interest charges on cash advance which were not applied till the statement cut date.  Had to wait 30 days to get CR to update with zero balance, and in the interim I had a small drop in my score due to number of accounts with a balance reported.

[Uborrow-Upay]

Ditto to txjohn's post. 

Bear in mind, however, that some CCCs do not allow you to pay more than the current balance on your account at any given time, so if your card company is one of those, and they add the cash advance interest when cutting the statement, you will have a small balance reported if you PIF before the statement cuts.  Nothing you can do about it.